CollegePlus is Now Lumerit Education/Scholar

[gremlinbrawler]

I do have the transcript saved but if you don't need that to file a complaint because it's all over their website. And no, they did not say ACE approved which is what led me to believe that they may have somehow gained status as a regionally accredited institution but what dfrecore said makes a lot more sense - the courses are probably though a different regionally accredited institution.

Yes, they, of course, wouldn't accept all 40 courses because they would only accept up to 90 credit hours from one provider which is still A LOT.

I am not saying that it is a good price or that anyone should necessarily use them I am only saying that what we have previously been saying in this thread is now incorrect. I would like to set the facts straight (now that they have more courses and things have changed) so that people can decide for themselves. If you can take 90 credit hours of FREE courses (with your membership) then the coaching sessions do not come out to over $480 per session (anymore) like you previously said.

I agree that their marketing tactics are cheap and they do use fear tactics but misquoting their prices would not make us any better than them. I think that your blog and this web-site are both extremely valuable resources and worth much more than college plus for 90% of students but that doesn't mean it's the best for all students. Especially considering that college plus has relationships with other colleges and can help students who are not interested in going to one of the big 3.

The best way to get people to not use them is to give people the real facts and then let them make a decision for themselves. Declaring that they must be lying about the courses somehow being through a regionally accredited institution without looking into it isn't fair.

You're right, those on degreeforum are better than them, so we don't have to stoop to their level.

[dfrecore]

So I just did a quick spreadsheet, to determine if this is actually a good plan.  No sense making up numbers when you can plug them into a spreadsheet.  I went with the Business degree, which is an easy one to figure out.

I plugged in doing the $6500 Lumerit Unlimited Plan, which gives you as many courses as you can cram into a year, and went by the list they have on their website.  I gave it the benefit of the doubt, and assumed that you would take every possible course through them during the year.  I also assumed that the AOS courses they offer are UL, of which there is certainly no guarantee, but it would only cost a few hundred extra bucks to take them as UL courses elsewhere.

57cr will work in Gen Ed, but they don't have a Speech course.
27cr will work in the Business Core (they don't have International Business or Business Comm).
9cr will work in the Business AOS (MAN area)
3cr will work in Free Electives
That's 96cr for $6500, not a terrible price ($67/cr)

I then assumed that you would apply for and receive the Study.com/Guardian scholarship.
3cr in the Gen Ed (Speech)
6cr in the Core (Int'l Bus & Bus Comm)
6cr in the AOS (any 2 of ACC, MAR or FIN)
3cr in Free Electives (Personal Finance)
That's 18cr free

You're going to need to spend ~ $100 on the remaining course in the AOS

Once you add TESU's costs (App fee, residency waiver fee, grad fee), you're at $9,905.  That is WAY more than it would cost to just do one of the plans I create for free right now - which doesn't take advantage of any of the free stuff except the Ethics course, and comes in at $7,205.  So you're paying $2,700 extra, and that doesn't even count what happens if you can't finish in a year, or if the AOS courses don't come in as UL.  That's also comparing the degrees without any cost savings for my plan, which might include free CLEP exams through Modern States, free courses through Study.com, or any of the free courses that are available through TEEX, Sophia, and NFA.  It also doesn't count having courses average less than $100 using Saylor or Shmoop.

If you were to use the TESU Comprehensive Plan for 36cr in a year (more doable than 96cr for most people), and utilize CLEP/Modern States for as many courses as possible, and get the Study.com scholarship for 6 courses, the only price you would pay for a single course was $25 for a Saylor course.  I could get the price down to $6,807.

So to recap:

Regular plan using freebies (Modern States, Study.com) = $3,493

Regular plan w/no freebies, ~ $100/course = $7,205

TESU Comprehensive Plan + Modern States = $6,807

Lumerit + Study.com scholarship + $25 for an AOS course = $9,830

WAY overpriced.

====================================
EDIT: I did a spreadsheet for the cheapest possible BSBA in GM, and using CLEP/Modern States, Shmoop for multiple courses in a month, 6 courses from Study.com/Guardian scholarship, The Institute, and 4 Saylor courses, I was able to get it down to $3,493!!!  So less than 50% of my most expensive plan without freebies, and about 1/3 of the cost for the Lumerit Plan where you have to take 93 credits in a year to make the most of it.  You could easily switch out a bunch of Lumerit courses for CLEP/Modern States courses to ease up on the number of courses/exams you needed to take, and the cost wouldn't change - although the average price per course would go up for Lumerit.

[gremlinbrawler]

Wow, thanks for adding that all up! Very helpful. Yeah, it's also hard to say how good their courses are as well.

I think the only benefit of using them would be if you are looking to go to a university that doesn't accept a lot of CBE. According to their FAQ "Every course we offer is regionally transcripted. This allows these courses to transfer to virtually any college that accepts transfer credit. To verify these courses will transfer to your college, you’ll receive degree planning."

Of course, with any of the big 3 (or a university that is exam friendly) you'll still be much better off doing it on your own. But they could probably save those people who have unusual majors and are planning on going to a college that doesn't accept CLEP and such.

[cookderosa]

Wow, thanks for adding that all up! Very helpful. Yeah, it's also hard to say how good their courses are as well.

I think the only benefit of using them would be if you are looking to go to a university that doesn't accept a lot of CBE. According to their FAQ "Every course we offer is regionally transcripted. This allows these courses to transfer to virtually any college that accepts transfer credit. To verify these courses will transfer to your college, you’ll receive degree planning."

Of course, with any of the big 3 (or a university that is exam friendly) you'll still be much better off doing it on your own. But they could probably save those people who have unusual majors and are planning on going to a college that doesn't accept CLEP and such.

so tempting to revisit "regionally transcripted" .. but I'll refrain.